Wow what a great find. Two things, you and your buds are young enough you can have it both ways. Fix it up to similar to how the previous owner had it, and enjoy it like that for a while. It will get a lot of comments where ever you go with it. Down the road, if you want to chop it, or lay back the a pillars of what ever then go for it. But I would honor and preserve it for a while, and you can start having fun with it quick and cheap for a while. Point II Go back and tell the old guy to negotiate a lease with the church. Tell him to tell the pastor he had a vision of part of his lot being a nice landscaped parking area, and his driveway being repaved and his house being fixed up and painted, The shed being demoed and lawn put back in, and his lawn being cared for by some one else. And him having a nice steady income for say the next 50 years by having the church pay him 300 bucks a month for use of the property. My mom and dad did that a few years ago with some property they had in N.Mex. Church got their extra parking, the city kept the lot on the tax rolls, and they got a bit of pocket change every month. I just fininshed the negotiations to sell both parcels to the church, as my mother and father never did any thing with either property.
Lookin forward to progress updates. You're very lucky. That is a complete car. It's always been a complete car. In my opinion, it would be best to keep it as complete as possible, ie keep the fenders, sort out some nice wheels and tyres - steels obviously - maybe change the headlights and drop the bar a little - but keep it as intact as possible - it already has a great driveline combo. It will probably not dawn on you how lucky you are until you are an old man. One day you'll suddenly remember the day you pulled that deal and it'll hit you. Hopefully just after that thought, you'll go out to the garage and fire up the unchopped fully fendered 32 3W and take 'er out for a little run round the block. Mart.
very cool find. i think the emotions of the guy that sold it has been taken lightly by some. did the guy say what he wanted? just curious. it's awesome. you got plenty of time to make it what you want. as others have said, just enjoy it now and see how you feel about it later. maybe 50 years from now someone will want to restore it back to what you built it as.
Interesting question above about what the old man had wanted to do with the car....He had wanted to build it back as a highboy. We had talked about this several times before I actually bought the car, and I think that he really liked that I wanted to build a traditional style car...and not a streetrod. That being said, I really am up in the air about how much he really cared about the car...it hasn't exactly been well cared for over the years. Of course, I can't speak for someone else, and I will probably never know why the car set uncovered for so many years... Nonetheless, I do plan on keeping him involved on the progress of the car. I am going to give him update pics every couple of months, and maybe that might jog his memory a little bit, maybe dig up some old pics, etc. I have talked to a couple of older deuce guys about the car, and one of them can remember seeing the car in '57, and he didn't think that it moved after about '62. The '61 date code on the battery seems to support this. This particular guy is restoring a local 32 sedan, called the "Hillbilly", that was a pretty notorious local car in the 50's & 60's, and was built by a local (and somewhat famous at the time) racer and fabricator named Sherman Utsman. The similariaties between that car and mine are amazing...exact same engine, same merc. rear, exact same suspension setup...right down to the extensions welded on the 36 radius rods for the relocated mounting ball. This fellow is almost certain both cars were set up by the same guy. I am trying to find out more on the history, but the previous owner has been very vague about alot of details.... I haven't really got to do alot with the car...I have pulled the fenders off of it, and still trying to decide what all I need for it. I have odered new subrails and floors from Brookville, and am still going to focus on getting the car structurally sound and go from there. My wife just delivered our daughter last week, so I haven't really been doing much with cars for the last little while... sam
Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. And on finding such a complete car so close. I keep looking everywhere i go and all i seem to find are cars that noone wants to sell... If i had a dime for every time i hear "someday im gonna fix it up" lol Ken
Congratulations Sam, I've seen that deuce sitting there for over 30 years that I remember and never had the nerve to bother the folks because I had always heard how mean and ill they were when someone approached them about the car. About a year ago I saw Jerry sitting outside WalMart and said what the hell, I'm going over and talk to him the worst he could do is to tell me to F" off. As you said to contradict everything I'd heard, he was a nice guy and told me of his old days as a principal and we talked for 10-15 minutes. I did not try to pressure him about the car just make conversation. You took the right approach. Glad it worked out for you "lucky dog". I really want a 5 window for myself anyway (like I need another project). Maybe I'll see it at a show soon. Meanwhile I'm working on a gasser in BC. Here are a couple of "in the weeds-pre shed" pictures I took back around 2000, I think.
Gassy... Thanks for the pics. I have found a few others floating around on the internet as well...Here is one from the early 80's... Sam
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